DANIEL 10-12

Interpretation: to teach Jews that God
is in control, ordering events to respect the Messianic desires
of righteous Jews

Setting (10:1-4):

While fasting, Daniel received this vision during
the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, 536 BC, at the Tigris River.

The Messenger (10:5-11:1):

God had heard Daniel's prayer during his fasting
and immediately sent His messenger, apparently an angel. Besides
providing Daniel with the prophecy, the messenger described a
scene in the spiritual realm in which angels war on behalf of
nations. It is implied that the predetermined course of the
warring results in the events that are described in the following
chapters.

[1] The books Maccabees are not inspired but furnish an
account of the related events:

"On
the fifteenth day of the month Kislev in the year 145, 'the
abomination of desolation' was set up on the altar. Pagan altars
were built throughout the towns of Judaea; incense was offered at
the doors of houses and in the streets. All scrolls of the law
which were found were torn up and burnt. Anyone discovered in
possession of a Book of the Covenant, or conforming to the law,
was put to death by the king's sentence. Thus month after month
these wicked men used their power against the Israelites whom
they found in their towns."

"On
the twenty-fifth day of the month they offered sacrifice on the
pagan altar which was on top of the altar of the Lord. In
accordance with the royal decree, they put to death women who had
had their children circumcised. Their babies, their families, and
those who had circumcised them, they hanged by the neck. Yet many
in Israel found strength to resist, taking a determined stand
against eating any unclean food. They welcomed death rather than
defile themselves and profane the holy covenant, and so they died.
The divine wrath raged against Israel (1 Maccabees 1:54-64, NEB)."

"Shortly
afterwards King Antiochus sent an elderly Athenian to force the
Jews to abandon their ancestral customs and no longer regulate
their lives according to the laws of God. He was also
commissioned to pollute the temple at Jerusalem and dedicate it
to Olympian Zeus, and to dedicate the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim
to Zeus God of Hospitality, following the practice of the local
inhabitants."

".
. . The Gentiles filled the temple with licentious revelry: they
took their pleasure with prostitutes and had intercourse with
women in the sacred precincts. They also brought forbidden things
inside, and heaped the altar with impure offerings prohibited by
the law. . . . (2 Maccabees 6:1-5, NEB)."

The
entire account in 1 & 2 Maccabees lists many more horrible
incidents that Syria committed against the Jews.